Tuesday, January 3, 2017

You oversleep,
spill the coffee, and get caught in a rush hour traffic jam. Then you check
your messages and the day really heads south because according to the
State Bar (or Board of Accountancy, Medical Society, or other group), you’re in
trouble with your professional association.Or are you?

The FTC has been
warning consumers for years about government
imposter scams: phone calls or email falsely claiming to be from the
IRS, the local sheriff’s office, immigration authorities, or even the FTC.
Sometimes the voice on the other end threatens people with arrest if they don’t
wire money immediately. Or they may want personal information – credit card
numbers, banking data, or the like. The modus operandi is ever-evolving,
but this much is true: The messages are false.

Now the bottom
feeders have turned their attention to attorneys, accountants, doctors, and
others who hold state licenses or certifications. With the click of a mouse,
they mock up an official-looking – but not official, of course – email telling
recipients that their licenses will be suspended unless they send past-due
“fees” immediately. Some insist that you wire the money by the close of
business, while others demand your credit card number.

In a variation on
the scheme, fraudsters claim that someone has filed a professional complaint
against you. To get the details, you’re directed to click on a link, which then
installs malware on your computer.

Of course, State
Bars and Boards regularly communicate with members via email – and yes, we all
have to pay our annual dues. But if the circumstance is so serious that a
person’s professional license is on the line, the first they’ll hear about it
won’t be in email like that.

What should you do
if you get a message claiming your dues are overdue, a complaint has been filed
against you, the sender needs your trust account number, or your license is at
risk? Call the Bar or Board directly. Just don’t use a phone number in the iffy
email. Use one you know to be genuine – for example, the number on your
membership card. And if it turns out to be a scam, report it to the FTC and
warn others in your field that con artists may have them in their sights.